Graffiti-removal companies offer dramatically lower bids

LAS VEGAS — ClarkCounty commissioners have noticed a sharp decline in the cost of the bids provided by cleaning companies hired to remove graffiti from the Las Vegas strip, according to the Las Vegas Sun.

According to the story, bids for graffiti-removal contracts are substantially lower than previous years — in one case a company''s bid dropped from $28,666 to $3,486 per mile, an 88 percent reduction, leading county officials to wonder if previous bids were fair.

Commissioner Steve Sisolak said: "I do have some questions on this one."

However, American Graffiti, the winning bidder of the contract, said the reason for the decline in cost is due to the initial, labor-intensive removal being much more costly than the lighter upkeep required today, the story stated.

Mike Kightlinger, American Graffiti manager, said: "When we started, it was more like a restoration. We brought it back up to the original state, we did the meat-and-potatoes work. And we even went beyond that."

Kightlinger said that the company is now using an iPhone application allowing employees to take photos of graffiti, alerting the company of its location to increase removal time and track trends, the story noted.

Kightlinger said that there are about 1000 instances of graffiti in the Las Vegas resort corridor in a given week, the story added.